crocheting, fall, life

Been a long time since I've written. So today I thought I'd catch up on all that I'm doing, and have been doing since August. Let's see, I've crocheted a gorgeous baby blanket for my daughter's sister-in-law, (forgot to take a picture) as usual. It's just a plain old mile-a-minute in blues, cause we know she's having a boy. I was working on the gorgeous Blessed mother shawl by Kim Guzman. This shawl is gorgeous and it's made in filet. I've only made one other thing in filet crochet and that was a bookmark. This shawl was, and is a challenge to me as I've had to learn to read the chart. There are no instructions on how to do it, just a chart to follow. Well, I wrote it out in a sort of short hand for myself and was almost done when my husband said it looked funny. So, I examined it closely and he was right. I had the lips going out, instead of in. So, I re-examined my written out instructions and I was off by stitches. I frogged it all the way down to the fourth row, (there are 93 rows). I sat with a magnifying glass and rewrote all the instructions again, after I color coded each row. Now I'm happily back to crocheting it and am on row 15. I will definitely take a picture and post it when I'm done.

I'm also working on finishing a shawl that I started last year for Christmas for my mother-in-law. I ran out of yarn and there was no way I could afford to pay $15 a skein to get more. Money is tight for us as well as many others. So, I was shopping in Job Lot the other day and lo and behold there was the yarn I needed for $5. I bought 3, even though I only needed 1. You never know. So that'll be done for this year as well.

I've been so lucky this summer with finding tons of yarn at the Flea Market near me. I made my mother a great set of placemats and coaster that needed to be trimmed in lace. I found the lace at the flea market for $1. This was a roll that originally sold for $2.99 per yard and here I got 10 yards for a buck. I also got many colors of yarns and lily thread to make more sets for all the women in the family. My stash has grown so big, I had to reorganize a whole room to store it all. I have it all computerized as well so I always know what I have, how much I have, and if I need more. I know, I'm a list freak. :)

So pretty much, for the past two months all I've been doing is living and crocheting. Pretty boring to most, but what can I say, I'm housebound.


It's November now and getting mighty chilly out here. Not too sure how that makes me feel. I mean everything is dying now and that part makes me sad. The fall colors are beautiful, but you can smell the death of the earth in the air. Snow is not too far off, I can feel that in my bones. When I think of snow, I think of sitting by a fire all wrapped up, and crocheting, or reading a really good book. Unfortunately for me, if I was near a fire, I'd be complaining that I was too hot. And all wrapped up, totally out of the question. I am one of those people, (OK, maybe I am the only one), who wears tank tops all year long. I'm always hot. If I am ever cold, then look out, something's really wrong.

Well it's lunch time, and I have to eat and get ready for a doctors appointment so, gotta run. I hope I don't wait to long to write in this blog again. And, I hope the next time I do, I'll have something to show for all my hanging around.

Summers over and time to get Crocheting

I can't believe that summer is over. It feels like it just flew by. We went on vacation the next to last week of August and it was nice. I enjoyed the fact that I was at the beach all week, but having the grandkids around that time was crazy. I think next year I will talk David into taking a week by ourselves. I think it would be much more relaxing for both of us. I got an awesome tan though, LOL. I took something to crochet with me, but never got the chance to do any.

Well, I am getting ready for Christmas, as in making my lists of items to crochet for everyone. I decided this year that I would make one bigh special gift for one person, and lots of little gifts for everyone else. This way I am not over doing myself and trying to do the impossibel. So, I chose my mom as my first big gift receiver, adn for her I am making the Blessed mother shawl by Kim Guzman. you can see a picture of it here: http://kimguzman.bravejournal.com/entry/20024 unfortunately the only way to get the pattern is to purchase it from someone else. My mom is a devout christian and I thought I would make this the same way a prayer shawl is made. I will sort of pray over it as I make it. I will put love, strength, health, and well being into it. As you can see by my blog I am not a christian, but my mom doesn't hold that against me. She's pretty cool about it, always asking questions, and comparing our religious beliefs. She will even send me and email that is religious in content and tell me to substitute the word "God" for whatever feels right to me. I truly love her for that.

For the rest of my family and friends I have decided all the women, (my 2 daughters, and 4 girl friends) will get kitchen & bath sets, and a hat & scarf set. Mom will get a kitchen & bath set as well. My grandchildren, Tati, will get doll clothes, and AJ will get a cowboy outfit, along with scarfs, hats and mittens. Now 2 of my girl friends have daughters that play with Tati, there are 3 of them and they will all get hat, scarf, & mitten sets. My other 2 girl friends, (one being my best friend) have sons. There are 3 of them as well. Twin boys, and my sweetie Braeden. the twins are 15 months old and Brae is 7 months old. for them, I will make a sweater set. Something cutesy. For the men, Hats, scarfs and hopefully sox. On my side bar I will have a meter that will show my progress as each item is completed. I think this will help me so that I don't get too overwhelmed. I have almost 4 months to complete all of this and I believe I can.

On my last post I talked about how much I loved making my top. Well, I have since then set it aside with the idea that I will work on it again after the holidays. I will frogg it and re-make it. If for some reason I can't, then it will be frogged a final time and I will use the yarn for something else. It will only mean that this top was not meant for me.

I am going to the Doc's next week and I am going to get answers to some questions I have. I was recently diagnosed with Lichen Planus it is a rare skin disease and they think it's linked to meds I have taken, but they aren't sure. I gave up my arthritus meds to help this go away, and that did not help me. I need some kind of arthritus medicine to help me. I am getting worse and can't stand it. It can take up to 2 years for this rash to go away. I'll tell you, it sux. I also have concerns about pre-diabetes. I know that is runs in my family and I have noticed some really strong changes that tip toward this. I also want the doctor to test my thyroid. Just precautionary, but my daughter has a slow thyroid and where I can't seem to lose weight even with diet and exercise somethings up. And the last thing, is I need to contact my knee doctor. I want my cortisone shots in my knees again. I can't stand the fact that I can hardly walk anymore.

Well until another day
Blessings to you all

AAAAHHHHHH Crocheting clothes SUCK

Last time I wrote, I mentioned how I was making the "light & lively top" from Lion Brand. It is such an easy top to make. YEAH RIGHT. I am now giving up on it, and I will be ripping it out again, and this makes, what, the fourth time. I thought I did everything right. There are no mistakes in the stitches, everything looks perfect, and I only have a few more rows to go to finish it before adding the straps. Well, last night I decided to sort of try it on. It's too freaking big. Go figure. I even went with a smaller size down than what I am. I measured, and re-measured and followed the instructions, and the top is way too big. I don't understand. The yarn I am using doesn't stretch all that much, so that's not it. But this thing is not just a little too big, it's like 6 - 8 inches around too big. I don't know if there is a way to fix it besides ripping it out and starting over. I so wanted to wear this next saturday. So now I will just work on something else. I have way too many items I have to make for the holidays, that I can't keep playing around with this stupid top.

I think because of my frustration, I am going to make a few small items before I get into anything big. I mean, I need to feel like I've completed something. Maybe when the winter sets in, I can go back and re-figure, and re-crochet the top again. You'd think I wouldn't have so much trouble with clothes, because I can make Barbie clothes. I mean Barbie clothes are tiny, and people clothes are big. Same difference, right?

In fact I will be making some Barbie clothes for my granddaughter, Tatiana, for her birthday coming up, on August 5th. I also got some patterns to make Barbie furniture, so I think I will make some of those also. Maybe some regular doll clothes also. These are small items and I will at least feel like I've accomplished something.

While I was thinking about that stupid top, (that's all I do think about now), I came up with some ideas on making some other tops for myself. These will be my own design, so if they come out crummy or not at all, then I have no one to blame but myself. But in my head, they seem easy, so I'll give them a go after I get the holiday stuff done.

Well, I'm off to try and make something. I can't get this top out of my head.
Ciao for now

Summer crochet & Other things

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a month since I last wrote, or maybe I can. I am a little slow on the upkeep of a blog (journal). LOL I have never been a good journal keeper. My first and only diary was when I was around 15, (way way back in the olden days), :) and I wasn't good with keeping that up to date either. So, what have I been doing for a month. Well let me tell you. I decided to crochet the "light and lively top" from Lion brand. I figured I'd use this awesome yarn I had in my stash, Reynolds Saucy in Purple Passion. Now understand, I have a large bust, so I had to alter the size a bit to fit me. First time I did the triangles I made them way way too big. It was so funny, it made me look like I was flat. LOL. So, I frogged them, but not until after I had added the under bust. Nooo it would have been too smart to frog first, less work, but I had to make sure. So, I ended up frogging the triangle and 3 rows of underbust. Now at this time I also realized I didn't have enough yarn. Ain't that always the way. So I googled the yarn name and color. I found it, but wasn't happy with the price. I'm cheap, what can I say. So, I decided I would make the triangles and the underbust the passion purple and then use a nice dark multi-color for the body then trim in the purple. Well wouldn't you know, I couldn't find a color scheme I liked. I love to buy on e-bay. It's so much easier, prices are usually cheaper, and the ease of it is great for me. Well, back to the color problem, I ended up buying a pinquoin yarn that was multi-colored in lighter colors. I thought, hey it's summer, let's go light. Well wrong. LIGHT LIKE THIS FOR ME IS WRONG. Ok, so let's see, I frogged the triangles and made new ones, they are perfect now. Then I added the three rows of under bust in a smaller size and it seems like it will fit. These I did in the purple passion. I then crocheted the body in the light multi, using up 5 skeins, and the switched over to the purple, and did 9 rows of that. I had maybe a total of 6 rows to go, then I would work on the straps and be done. HA HA, wrong. It was too short. The pinguoin doesn't crochet up the same as the purple, and the color made it hideous. So, yup, I frogged, rip-it, rip-it, rip-it. All the way down to the underbust. I have since found the purple passion from a seller on e-bay. They sell it a couple pennies less than the yarn stores online, and their shipping price is better. So, I just bought 5 more skeins to start, probably need more, and I have been crocheting with all the purple I have left. It's almost done, thank goodness, I really want to wear this. I was hoping to wear it on Saturday, July 19th. I have my finger crossed.

So, what else have I been doing. Ahhh let me tell you. I went fishing down the Cape Cod Canal, I am the only woman of the group allowed to fish. I am usually a better "fisherman" than they are. Not only with cutting my own bait, baiting my own hook, never complaing about having to go pee, or that I'm hungry; I catch the bigger fish. LOL Check it out over in my pictures. That was me, on a chilly day. Usually, I am wearing a bathing suit and soaking up the rays, drinking the beers, and splashing in the water. I LOVE TO FISH. Can't wait to go again. But they go on Saturdays, and I am usually stuck babysitting the grandkids. But let me tell you, when their dad is off from work, I am gone. Up anywhere from 3 am to 5 am to go fishing.

This weekend is gonna be big here. Being that it's the fourth of July. We live in the center of town and there is a carnival across the street in the park every year. All of our freinds come over, cook out, have a few drinks, take the kidz, (those that have them), to the carnival for about an hour or two, then set up the chairs on the lawn and watch the show. It's great, no fighting for a parking space, they park in our yard. And getting home for them is so much easier, they take the back roads, so no traffic. It's really nice. Everyone helps with kidz, food, and drinks. Next year though we are adding a yard sale to the list of things to do. Each person who wants to set up, pays $5 (that's for the ad in the paper and such), and then sells all weekend. We should do great, with all the people that pass by my house to get to the carnival. We'll see.

So, I am already thinking about the holidays. I have so many things I want to make. I want to make at least 2 afghans, 3 mens sweaters, a madonna shawl in filet, 4 boy sweaters, 4 girl sweaters, 6 sets of kitchen items, barbie doll clothes & furniture, baby doll clothes, saddle bags, and a few pairs of slipper sox. I have a bunch of yarn to start the projects so if I work one big item until it's finished and just do a few small things in between, (you know, when you get bored with the big item), I should do good. But I am not starting anything until I finish my top first. LOL

All's well on the home front. Kitties are doing phenomenal, and hubby and I are doing good. Well, I could be better. I have recently been told that this awful rash all over my body is Lichen Planus. Sounds really bad huh. Well, it's not. It just means I am having an allergic reaction to something be it chemical, airborn, or even my arthritus meds. So, to help, I stopped my arthritus meds. That does seem to help with the spreading and itching. But it is still there and UGLY. Some of it has turned purple, and anywhere that I scratched until raw is now scarred. It's totally gross. And my arthritus is starting to bother me agian. So unless they can give me something else for my arthritus I have two choices; I either have this UGLY rash and little to no pain, or I can be somewhat normal looking (cause we all know I'm not normal looking anyway), and pain. I once made a statement to a girl friend of mine how I wanted a new body, and she answered me with the best answer I have ever heard. She said "you are given one life suit in the time to wear, how you wear it is your choice, no replacements, and no exchanges". A very wise woman.

Well ciao for now.

Time for myself

Time for myself, what a joke. I am laughing all the way to the laundry, dishes, vacume cleaner, dust rag, etc. etc. any old thing you can think of that has to do with cleaning. I am in my spring cleaning mode. Don't know where the heck that came from. OH yeah, it's spring, DUH. Well that's what I'm doing. Cleaning, and organizing and weeding out that which I no longer use, or even have ever used. LOL I am a packrat. I love to have things. Many things, different things, and shiny things. LOL I collect until there is no place to put the things I collect. So, I get rid of some things to make room for new things. I am a thing woman. :) Free-cycle people just love me.

So, between the cleaning and organizing I have had no time to really crochet or do anything creative. And man, those juices are flowing. I mean they are just gushing right out. My mind won't stop seeing creations in everything I am doing, I want to paint rooms, and I can actually close my eyes and see the rooms complete. I want to crochet tops for me, christmas gifts, (oops, sorry, I said the C word). I want to plant my flowers, I want to paint my ceramics. I know, I'll give up sleeping, cleaning (I wish), just plain give up on everything in my life and create. Even food!!! HA HA, like I could ever do that.

Actually, I am almost done with the cleaning. Three rooms left, and they will be done. YAY. Then, I think I will paint two rooms this summer. My bedroom, and the bathroom. I will make one top for myself, and then start some C word gifts. Make a ghan and smaller items at a time. I can do this. Let's see, I need to make 7 ghans, 17 hat sets, 10 pairs of slippers, 5 bath and beauty sets, 5 doilies, 5 mens sweaters, 4 tot girl clothes sets, 4 tot boy clothes sets, 1 infant boy set, and one filet blessed mother shawl for my mom. The only problem I see me getting into is the sweaters. I have never ever made sweaters before. It will be my luck, they will come out looking like they were made for an orangatang. HA HA HA. Oh well, my friends will love them anyway.

I am off to crochet and watch some tv.

Ciao for now

The Wedding is over, time to crochet for ME!!!

Well the wedding is finally over and it went beautifully. The bride, my daughter Tiffany, looked like a princess as well as my granddaughter Tatiana, the flower girl. I finished the shawls without a hitch, and the girls loved them. It happened to be chilly out, and most of them are smokers, so the shawls really came in handy. I cried, which I knew I would. But my baby has flown the nest, sort of. She, hubby and the kids, are staying with us until their apartment is ready, which should be next week. I will still see her and the kids almost every day until she is back to work, but after she starts work, I will have the kids during the day, and they all go home at night. Peace and quiet. Sounds like a little bit of heaven to me. LOL.

I have so many CAL's to catch up on and projects I want to make, that I will be in yarn-a-topia for a long time. :) I've already started and almost finished one of the doily's I need to make, and I have a cat bed on my hook as well. Nothing fancy on the cat bed, just something nice for my fur babies to sleep in. It will have to be larger than I first thought because they are growing like weeds. Will have to post some pics of them soon.

I created my first pattern, and it was my daughters bridal pouch (purse), and it came out gorgeous. It was so easy and quick that as soon as I rewrite the pattern so that it is readable, I will post it all for any who would like it.

Well, make sure you check out my pics in the flikr site to see the beautifu shawls and purses, and hopefully I will have the pattern ready for tomorrow. I want to go crochet a little.

until later, Ciao

Finally pics to the shawls and other things.

Wow, there is way too much going on here. There is only 48 days left until the wedding and all the final plans are being done. My daughter is driving me bananas. I still need to finish 2 more of the watermellon shawls and try and make another evening shawl for her mother-in-law to be, as well as make one for myself. Unless everyone in this house will leave me alone, I don't forsee that happening. But you never know.

I have Tiffany's shawl and pattern listed, no it is not my pattern. It is a pattern from Mary Maxim, http://www.marymaxim.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10001_10054_3074457345616780242_-1_3074457345616693277_3074457345616693278. You must register with them, it's free, and you need to adobe because it is a pdf file. I did alter it a bit. Instead of single crochet, I used double, and I extended the width and length. I made the width 15 inches, and because I crochet so tight I tripled the beginning pattern stitches. I used Patons Brilliant in crystal cream and it is gorgeous if I say so myself. OH wait, I am saying so. LOL

Tatiana's shawl is in the same yarn and it's called the old fashioned shawl, and can be found here http://web.archive.org/web/20000619100725/www.craftown.com/cropat2.htm This is also the shawl I am making for all the bridesmaids. Theirs will be in Carons simply soft, watermellon. I just adjusted Tatian's size to fit her, she is only 5 and small.

The black shawl is made from a yarn I had, which I have no clue what kind it was. It's black knitting worsted with silver shot thru it. The patern can be found here, http://www.craftown.com/crochet/pat51.htm The stitches in this are gorgeous. In the first picture you can't quite see them, so I did a close up with white paper underneath.

Got my newest fur member yesterday. We had to drive about an hour and a half to get to the place, but she is so worth it. I have a picture of her as well. She's 7 weeks old and a little ball of puff. She's a grey tuxedo medium hair, and we named her Dusty. Lucifer thinks she's his toy and tries to kick her butt. But let me tell you, she is one tuff little cookie. She hisses at him and gives him more than he can handle. My family is now complete, or I should say, will be after Tiffany gets married. :) Well, I'm off to crochet some more and hopefully soon, I will be done with these and can make something special for myself. Yeah right, like that will ever happen. Somebody always needs or could use something, and I love to crochet that I just have to say, sure.
Ciao for now

another shawl bites the dust

Yay!!! I am so excited, another shawl is done. only have 5 more to go. LOL. I took a break today, and went out and adopted a new kitten. It's my first boy as I have always had girls, but he is so cute. He is a heartbreaker. I allowed the grandchildren to name him and they named him after their favorite movie, drumm rolllllll--------------------the movie is, Cinderella. and the cat's name is Lucifer. Yes, I know. All I can think of is the mice saying Lucyfur. LOL. He's great though. Now, I have to find him a sister. I was going to have an all black cat, and an all white cat and name them Ebony and Ivory. But with a 2 1/2 yr old and 5 1/2 yr old around, that was not happening. I did tell the children that they got to name the boy, and it's my turn to name the girl, and I can't do that until I meet her, which I haven't yet. Lucifer is great he has already won over my hubby's heart, which really is not all that easy to do. Hubby likes to think he's this tuff macho man, and he isn't. Lucifer has claimed David, as his. plain and simple. Can't wait to take a picture of him and put him up on the site. You will just fall in love with him.

OK, so I finished another of my afghans and am onto the next. I can do this, 5 more and 64 days to go. It seems like I might be able to do it. but the last pattern, and the next 2 are really simple and quick to make. The next 2 are a little more involved. They are the evening shawl found here; http://www.craftown.com/crochet/pat51.htm I have made this before and it really is beautiful, I made this a really long long time ago, like about 17 years ago. So, the memory isn't quite what it should be. LOL Anyway, I'm off to protect Lucifer from Ashton, and try and work some more on the next shawl.

I will be putting up pictures soon as well as links to make these. I have some things that I have made with my own directions and will put them up as well. I love to get free patterns, and pay for some as well, and I would love to share mine with others of like mind.

Ciao for now.

2 Shawls done, 6 more to make

Finally I finished Tiff's shawl 2 days ago and started and finished Tati's. Oh what a relief, the 2 most important ones are done and I only need to make 6 more, with 68 days left. Sounds like a lot of time, but in all reality it is not. I don't get to crochet for long periods of time because Ashton doesn't like it. Little shit. He seems to think that the world revolves around him. Oh wait, it does, he's only 2 and that is what all 2 yr olds think. LOL Now I will be starting on the brides maids shawls and when I get back from David's Bridal, yes we are going there today. FUN FUN FUN. I will then know what colors I will need and measurments. One thing I truly hate is a shawl that is not long enough. It can be a bit too long, but short shawls suck. I mean they don't keep you warm, or comforted, and they look retartded. So, this is what my day is about. Looking at bridesmaid dresses, listening to all of the complaining, "oh they don't have the color I want, I look fat in this color, this makes me look like a cow" and then, I get to feel like a cow. Cause to tell the truth, I am a cow. LOL I so desperately need to starve myself and drop a few. OK, maybe more than a few. Either that, or I am wearing one of my corsets, and having it laced so tight I won't be able to sit and eat at the wedding. That's it, I'll just walk around looking good, and being friendly no food will interest me. YEAH right, when has food not interested me. I'm doomed. LOL I really should be drinking my tea. This green tea stuff I bought called Wi Tea is supposed to help me lose weight, but I don't think it works if I don't drink it and only look at it. DUH. So, I will now go make a cup of tea, and get dressed to go shopping.
Ciao til later

Just another day. Well not quite. I just started tanning with my daughter to get ready for the wedding. I mean really, we have to look good for this don't we. And nothing says I look good like a nice tan. LOL. Still working my butt off on Tiffany's shawl. I thougt I was done when I reach 60" but her being such a tall young woman, she's almost 6 feet, I decided to make this 6 feet long. So a few more rows and I'll be done. and it is beautiful if I say so myself. Hey wait, I am. :) I will be putting up pictures of my stuff very soon. The problem is, that I received a new camera for xmas and it came with no program so I can't download the pics into my computer. I tried getting a hold of the company, but no one is responding. So, for now, I will use my daughters and get all my stuff up on flickr.

Not much else happening around here so, I'm off to finish this shawl while everyone is sleeping.

ciao til later

Spring 2008

So, today I start my blog. It seems so funny that I am blogging, but I want a place to show my crafts, share my life, and rant if needed. Today I will start with where I am in my life. I'm in my office. LOL No seriously, I am beginning a new stretch to my life. I am crocheting my ass off to get my daughter's shawl done for her wedding so that I can then crochet my own shawl. as well as one for my mother, my daughter's mother-in-law to be, and each of the 3 bridesmaids. All of these must be done before the wedding which is April 26, 2008. I can do it. At least I'm thinking positively.

So, what do I do. I am a homemaker, and I babysit my 2 grandchildren. Ashton Jamison, AJ, who is 2 1/2 and a boy from hell, and Tatiana, Tati, who is 5. I watch AJ six days a week and he is just uggghhh. I love him dearly, but he sure keeps me hopping. Tati goes to school, so I only have her in the afternoons. Of course they live with my husband and me along with their mother. But that is only until she gets married. Yup, you guessed it, she's the one getting married in April. Thank the Hallowed Halls of Hell. I love her dearly, but please, I need some peace and quiet in my old age. HA HA She says I'll miss her and the kid's so much, I'll just ramble around the house complaining that I miss them. Yea right. Not. I'm getting my motorcycle license this spring and I will be tooling down the road with hubby. Oh do people still say that? Whatever.

So this is it for now. Gonna go explore this blog stuff and add more garbage soon.
ciao til later.